Evening Star Newspaper, October 11, 1925, Page 85

"MAGAZINE SECTION ILLUSTRATED FEATURES FICTION AND HUMOR Part 5—8 Pages ghe Sundiy Stad WASHINGTON, D. ., SUNDAY MORNIN OCTOBER 11, 1925. istrict Furnishes Big Supply of Silk Worms to U.S. Schools ~ BY GE 5 L DACY. HOUSEHOLD industry v Cathay has been tran v and novel form | r vous of ou and in- ational exhibits, repre- the life history of th 1 hobby by a| r o s them to th stre on of the ci who has reared s in his hack yard trom | en thrc f this ir g to wh wve learned in studying the cimens. s ied by S0s, when n | tomol he adaptability ditions, industry de al ier was em the ento- Department of Keleher was ing and car silkworms. | \ in his ‘teens | we. He beeame in the marvelous | from that time | is devoted all his nd con- | wild spe China and B ers of have rms that | th: powers of their silk slands have been greatly enla the quality and | of have improved Our early colo inia, South nd Geor d in silk | hand x o abstract | trands of silken thre ocoon. As ; : ced 10,000 pounds of cor e re tsilk reeled by @ brous e price | than the best lorida tells orcan col- make a_su w World. landing Roc Island ilkworms. Jersey em- our fi Mexico, what “Morus mult = cd hap- | rtunes Jack labor processes prohibited suc- was listed > very name knockout fterward in (% Alabama and Geor: f Utah made a it They e tevelop the ouscholds. Dem periments The project § invention of machine Several were built and v the bubble ! Mormons | unable » tide of silk- culture failures silk of fir in many _secti States. Exper abundance o v trees. The have heen successful in raising _silkw the costly hand labe silken fib mercial r: limting factor put failure in imported from for in China. Japan. Tt key and India, will fean silk ind tected so th and produc e vast now used in mila from wood Wood pulp_from on forests and by-product Jand’s cotton industr marvelous machines artificial silk of cor > as their manufacturer article is now npting to pergect n pliances so that pure s Auced 1 e mulber tomatons which will tion as substi- tute silkworms problematical whether ultimate ity will at- tend these technical tests. The con- mmations of modern industry are wonderful that it would be fool- current to say that N such as this are impossible complishmer of whish is related directly or in- tly to the curious Keleher, who, during 40 arch and research with has mastered most of the these skilled spinners. He admits can- didly that, under current conditions, the commercialization of silk culture in this country is impossible. But he explains that there is a field for such educational operations as those in which he engages for pleasure and recreation. Our younger generations must be taught about the amazingly adept silkworm. Vizualization are nmowadays considered most effec- tive. Silkworms and silkworm exhibits hest accomplish such ends. That is why Mr. Keleher has continued silk. worm rai for many years after - | takes a multitudinous n .| placed on top of this perforated ie- 1 is changed. This facilitates the re- | * leading storage companies what is | the most unusual article which it keeps in safe and secure cold storage v layman, and the reply will be, | | “Silkworm eggs.” Mr. Keleher, in this | se, the customer who rents stor-| ace for his extraordinary val-| For 10 years now he has been | wintering his silkworm_egg supply | with the same company. You see, it is | | necessary to keep the eggs at a low temperature until the propitious | ! hatching sease rives. As a rule, the | eggs are removed from cold storage |about the 1st of May. No. the pare el | is not a bulky one, for silkworm eggs | are only as e ‘as pinheads and it | s of them to weigh as much as one pound. | The ezgs are removed to the attic of the Keleher home, which is fitted | up as o sil m nursery and labo- In about 10 days after the warmed up naturally the worms he 2 out In the| carly They are pro-| vided with rations finely cut mul- ! iberry leaves. The worms are behind | mosquito netting. The leaves are {cloth. The juvenile worms rise | through the apertures in the netting and greedily consume the repast. | Day by day their mosquito net cage moval of debris with minimum dis- turbafice to the worms themselves. The worms are, respectively, only | i one-eighth of an inch long to begi | with, but within the next 30 day: hey attain adult development, grow ng rapidly until they rcfich an aver- age length of about three inches. | "When full grown they develop vo- | racious appetites and dine five to six times daily on small branches of mulberry leaves. In fact, the larva | spends all its time in eoting and zrowing. Finally, after attaining full matu- rity, the worms crawl over the leaves and begin to shrink in size. They climb to the so-called “forest,” or miniature brush retreat provided for that purpose, and then begin to discharge great amounts of silken {thread from their spinnarets. ! Each worm, like a piece of mechan- ital apparatus, continues the produc- Ition of this silken material at the rate of 65 “shakes” of its head per minute. Each of these movements is productive of an additional flow of silk. During the following three days the worm will shake its head 300,000 times, will complete the spinning of its cocoon and will produce from 750 to 1,200 vards of silken thread. Then the worm is transformed into the hrysalis or restinz sts Generally the chiysalis Eaech Cocoow Contains 750 101200 yards of s4lle_ . 7 | | the project has proved to be im-| | practical in the United States from a | }l.mm standpoint. ! x k% x | [NQUIRE of one of Washington’s | Mu. Teleher and his educational exhibit. Mounting the Sl wornt Molhs. the silkworm’s life history lasts for two weeks. Under domestication the cocoons containing the chrysalises are strung together like beads on strands of thread and suspended in some cool, sheltered spot. Ultimate- ly the moths emerge from the co- coons. Each moth is provided with two remerkable glands located near the obsolete mouth of the insect. These glands secrete a liquid which moistens the wall of the cocoon so that the moth is able to escape from its confinement. The moth iscream white in color, has neither mouth nor jaws, and has a wing spread of 11 to 2 inches. You can distinguish the sex of the moth by its size, the fe- male being the larger specimen. As a result of 50 centuries of do- mestication the silkworm. which ver, has + lost its powers of airline travel. The male can flutter his wings a little, but cannot fly, while the female can- not lift her body weight oy the strength of her wings. Usually the mother moth deposits 400 eggs and then dies in 8 to 10 days. These eggs are as large as ordinary pin- heads. The moth, as she has no mouth, cannot eat, but draws her nourishment from her bodily tissues and substance. She really eats her- self to death. The quality of the silk depends on the variety of silkworm and the man- ner in which the domesticated silk manufacturer has been handled. The leaves of the white mulberry trees are the best fodder for silkworms in the United States. The skilled worms de- raw materials from the mulberry which m.-L manufacture into Washingtonian Raises Mulberry Leaves in His Backyard and Feeds Them to the Extraordinary Worms Which Are the Foundation of the World’s Supply of Popular Fabric—How the Cocoons Are Handled by the Scientifically Informed Person. A Job Which Has Resulted in Disaster for Many Ambitious Persons—Preparation of Educational Exhibits. ken strands of fine thread. Under conditions where mulberry leaves are not available, successful use has been made of the leaves of the osage orange as a substitute. L O MR KELEHER specializes in the production of silkworms, cocoons, eggs, moths and chrysalises, which he serves and mounts as educational specimens for the use of grade school teachers. He also provides silkworms and eggs to a few colleges and labora- tories which require such scarce speci- | mens for experimentation. This Wash- ington enthusiast does not attempt to recover their silken crop from the | cocoons. He aims to produce large amounts of the cocoons, which he can utilize in the production of his educa- tional exhibits. J His salient creation is a glass-faced box in which the specimens are ar- ranged on a field of snowwhite cotton. ‘This exhibit consists of an inflated, life-size silkworm, several beautiful ‘white and <yellow coeoons, a half-sec- tion of a cocoon containing a chrysa- lis, specimens of male and female moths, a cluster of silkworm eggs, a pressed leaf from the white mulberry tree and samples of raw and manu- factured silk. Each specimen case is really a picture story of the silk- ‘worm’s life history adapted for visual study by children. During the many years that he has worked with silkworms as a hobby, Mr. Keleher has raised and studied the lifetime activities of more than half a million of these industrious spinners. All these operations have been carried on wishin calling distance ,J‘ congressional committees taxidermy activities. cyanide bottle. a sclentific_inflation bulb to force i into the skin, so that it would assumne its normal shape and size. This in flated skin wus placed i hol burner oven, where it was he: and hardened. This processing made the fraglle silkworm mummy firm. It { was then mounted in the exhibition | case so that it looked ex like a | silkworm. | The moths were also killed by ex posure 1o cyanide and then were pinned in place on cardboard and their wings were extended and held i position with strips of paper. After ihe moths were fully prepared for nounting, they were placed in perma- nent position in the school study wxes. Mulberry leaves were pressed, cocoons about as larze as ordinary | peunuts were selected and samples of raw and manufactured silk were 4150 added to_the educational cases. I order to destroy the chrysalizes in the cocoons where the extruc- of the raw silk by hand reeling processes is coutemplated, the or- dinary commerclal practice is to heat the cocoons for two hours in ovens at temperatures of 200 degrees | more. Exposure of the | the sun's rays for lonz p | fective of sim ecults, Six hun ) dred dried cocoons weigh one pound, {but it takes three und three | pounds of cocoo: {of raw silk. One pound of raw .ilk will make 10 vards of fine quality commerc silk. Pierced | from which the moths have e wre untit for reeling bhut can he « and made into thread somes | the sume wayv as cotton thread. Washington's silkworm enthnsiast has rcceived thousands of letters from all parts of the United States, from | people interested in his strange recres | tive sideline. He has answered count less inquiries from professtoniul teach- ers and laymen, who hav shed 1o know more about the silkw Many teachers who have i mul erry-leaf supplies huve secured silk worm trom Mr. Keleher. The de school teacher may to 300 silkworm eggs ob- in this way use them s I simple schoolroom_ex periment in insect study. This amount is small in d sion for it 1 one ounce. y watch the hunzes which They note how the eggs | which ¢ how the n won and how it chin, | chrysalis or resting stage. | quently. they keep tab on the emer- the moths und the ultim | Production of another exx The ters learn by seeing. Fduca- cdited Ly this sensible vis study. o ; an_ind le fascina tion ted with y with silkworms. Tin durinz the last 30 yvears. Mr. eher his burned midniz 1 the pursuit of hix unique m. And even today every once in en he learns something new about this remarkable | winged isect—something new and | different which he had never pre- | viousiy ascertained. | Exactly how the silkworm converts | mulberry leaves into silk science fdoes not know. Here is w mystery | which has_resisted the academic tacks of 5.000 years. Man to adjust and gedr mechanic: rm the work of the worms. 1t is an advent prom- usht compli s before it can recorded as modern | achievement. | N Transparent Steel. NEW method of making sheets of metal of unprecodented thinness, invented by Dr. Karl Mueller of the P sical Technical Institute of Ber- in, seems likely to prove of ce ider- table industrinl as well s scientific importance. He has suc ed in pro cets of steel so thin that they transparent us the clearest The test plates used to deter- mine the transpareney of optical and ruled with lines one twenty-tiv hundredth of an inch t, were pho raphed through sucih a metal shi ‘yund when enlirged to 400 dizmeters Ithe scale lines showed distinctivel | without any distortion. This absenc of aberation proves that the stru |ture of the film is perfectly even and 1‘011!12\1 in all directions. The me sheets re so thin that atoms will pass through them without impediment. Al- {pha r from radium, that consist of Istr ms of the stripped atoms of hy |tium, and completely blocked by |sheet of pape e not perceptibl: | weakened in passing through T |metal sheets. It is calculated from |the specific gravity of the metal that ;in these sheets there re not more than 30 ers of atoms in thickness. Yet the sheet of metal is so strong that when fastened in a frame it may be bent out by blowing on it to a si: teenth of an inch without rupture. Dr. Mueller makes these sheets by depositing an extremely fine film of the metal on a smooth surface by means of the el tric current and aft- erward separating the film from the foundation on which it xed. Many applications have already been 1 le by scientists and inventors to secure these transparent metal sheets for experimental purposes. They seem likely to serve as semi-permeuable mem. Lranes for the separation of gases. They may greatly advance the p ress of telephotography and television. They also seem likely to prove serv iceable in metallurgical research, and in the making of galvanometers, radio receivers and apparatus for measur- ing the action of the heart. Firepréof das Tank A air plane gasoline tank which may be completely riddled by in- cendiary or explosive bullets without bursting into flames or even leakin: is the latest development in the avia- tion field which comes from Vienus according to Science. The tank 1s e usual metal type, but with a peculiar interior coatingz, the composition of which s a carefui, suarded e-cret with tr.é inventor, probably on ti lorder of the liquid gums placed i been continued at one end of the city | automobile tires to make them punc- even as discussions and debates about | ture-proof. the tariff and duty on raw and manu- factured silk are being featured by |tering the tank, is immediately en the | veloped with & coating of some sort of If every national interest in|material that extinguishes the flames silk culture is revived, right here in,and at the same time prevents the the Capital City comprehensive facts | phosphorous-couted bullet from leav- and figures are available as a result of a Washingtonian's unusual pas-| In the test made by expert army The inflammatory bullet, upon en- ing a deposit. witnesses, a4 series of 20 bullets were The writer watched with interest |fired through the experimental tank, as Mr: Keleher engaged in‘his entomo- | which was filled half with gasoline He would re.{and half with inflammable gas. The move an active silkworm from a con- | bullets were fired in a series of one tainer where it had been feeding on |explosive, one phosphorous and one mulberry leaves and thrust it into a The poison would in had been fired, with no bad results, 5 or 10 minutes kill the worm. The |the tank was set in an airplane, experimenter dissected away the vital organs and body of the worm, leaving of Congress. Cocoon production hasionly the delicate skin. He then used solid, in rotation. After the 20 rounds which then made an hour's flight, us- ]mg only the gasaline from the appar- ently perforated tank.